Visual issue Solved while aligning the ball to the target from behind and over the ball

[p1n9183]

Note: this fix worked for me in order to achive better aligment to the target, may not work for u but you can try it.

I always wanted to align the ball line to my target on putts inside 15 feet like the pro and a lot scratch amateur i played with do.
So i give it a lot of hours and every time the same happened, i aligned the ball to my target from behind the ball but when i take my stance over the ball the line aims to the rigth of the target, i putted along that line of the ball and i always missed rigth.

A week ago on the putting green i decided to give it a go one more time, and the same as always. But this time i get a little creative and try out this fix. 
For a 4,5 feet (1 yard and a half) straigth putt i aimed to the left lip of the hole from behind the ball and when i take my stance the line aimed at the middle of the hole. Eureca I thought, but not. Do the same from 9 feet, from behind to the left lip but over the ball it was aimed at the rigth lip. 
As a man who love math i easy realiced that at 4,5 feet the difference between back from top view was half a hole and from 9 feet ( exactly 4,5 feet x 2 ) was a complete hole. It was easy to figure out that from 18 feet the difference will be 2 complete holes so from behind i have to aim 1 hole and a half from the left lip of the hole, i tryed and it worked!! over the ball the line was aiming at the center of the hole, and every well stroke putter rolls in that line to the middle of the hole. 

I still had one problem, what about 4 feet.. 8 feet, how much left i have to aim..? it´s hard to guess the exact place to aim, even more in tournament when you have to speed up. I figured out that if i extend the arm (like i do in long shots to aim) and aim 1 finger to the left of the target from behind the ball, when i´m over the ball the line is aiming at the hole.

This weekend played and important tournament (posted it on the tournament thread), such were the good results on the practice green i decided to put this fix into play. It worked beautifully, every good stroked putter started in my intended line. As a good green reader i holed a lot of putts in 11-12 speedmeter perfect greens.

This is my routine with this fix for a 6 footer half a hole break from rigth to left: While other players are playing i read my put (speed/line), when it´s my turn i place the ball and look for a spot a finger left of my target. My target it´s right lip of the hole, 1 finger left at that range it´s 0,66 of a hole, so the spot will be a bit left of the center of the hole. I align the ball line to that spot and take my stance, now over the ball i see the line aiming at the rigth lip and i can putt with confidence that i´m aiming ok.  

Need to work on the stroke but at least now i know that i´m aiming a lot better to my target more often with the bonus of the feedback of the line roling true to the hole or not when i hit it bad.   

[dennyjones]

Do you have an intermediary target?  

[p1n9183]

15 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

Do you have an intermediary target?  

I align the ball from behind to a spot at the same distance the hole is, then i align myself to a spot 6 inches from the ball in the line of the ball line. if you aim to a spot half way to the hole this will work but aiming half finger left in my case. But it will be harder to find a spot exactly halfway to the hole. 

[Zeph]

I use an intermediate target on almost every shot, from tee to green. There's usually a spot along a foot or two of my target line that I can line up to. A leaf, broken tee, grass with a different color, spot of dirt.

I found out years ago that I'm terrible at aligning if I just look at the target. The intermediate target helps me align and forget about it.

[iacas]

 Rather than trying to aim so you miss the hole try putting the ball down slightly further to your right or left when you are lining up from behind the ball. 

[p1n9183]

20 minutes ago, Zeph said:

I use an intermediate target on almost every shot, from tee to green. There's usually a spot along a foot or two of my target line that I can line up to. A leaf, broken tee, grass with a different color, spot of dirt.

I found out years ago that I'm terrible at aligning if I just look at the target. The intermediate target helps me align and forget about it.

I do the same from tee to green and it work ok, but on the green doesn´t, im not consistent. That´s why i wanted to do it with the ball line.

20 minutes ago, iacas said:

 Rather than trying to aim so you miss the hole try putting the ball down slightly further to your right or left when you are lining up from behind the ball.

I don´t understand what you mean, i aim from behind to miss the target left depending on the length. But over the ball the line aims at the hole because of the visual effect between the line looking from behind and over the ball. 

[TN94z]

So you are saying that you read the putt and line your ball up from behind on the line you want to hit it on, but then when you are over the ball, it just looks as if it's aimed somewhere else?  I would think you would just need to use one of those alignments and trust it and go from there??  So if you line your ball up from the back and it consistently misses by a ball (for example), then start lining the ball up from behind with twice as much break, maybe.  I use the line on my ball and aim it at what I consider to be the apex and then just worry about speed. It does sometimes look wrong when I'm standing over it, but I trust the alignment and it works great for me.

Edited August 7, 2017 by TN94z

[p1n9183]

23 minutes ago, TN94z said:

So you are saying that you read the putt and line your ball up from behind on the line you want to hit it on, but then when you are over the ball, it just looks as if it's aimed somewhere else?  I would think you would just need to use one of those alignments and trust it and go from there??  So if you line your ball up from the back and it consistently misses by a ball (for example), then start lining the ball up from behind with twice as much break, maybe.  I use the line on my ball and aim it at what I consider to be the apex and then just worry about speed. It does sometimes look wrong when I'm standing over it, but I trust the alignment and it works great for me.

I aim from behind the ball to the left an exact amount, so when i stand over the ball it look aiming to the target (it could be the hole or the apex). And when i hit the putt it starts to my target. My ball roll along the line i see over the ball, it never look wrong.

In your case, you aim from behind at your target, over the ball the line you see don´t aim at the hole. Your ball rolls along the line from behind the ball, it´s a different escenario. I think your stroke push or hook the ball from the line you see but it matches the lines you saw from behind, so it goes towards your target.

As i said, it would help the people with my same problem, that see the line wrong at address and roll the ball thru it left ot rigth to the target. 

[klineka]

39 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

As i said, it would help the people with my same problem, that see the line wrong at address and roll the ball thru it left ot rigth to the target. 

Wouldnt that mean that how you are standing at address needs to be changed? Sounds like maybe your eyes are too far inside of the ball instead of over top of the ball so then you didnt trust your initial lineup of the ball and subconsciously altered your stroke which ended up in the putts missing to the right? I would think it would be easier to change your eye/head position at setup than it would be to purposefully line the ball even further left than your intended target line. I could see that becoming really problematic, especially on right to left putts where you would actually be aiming the ball inside your intended target line.

[p1n9183]

3 minutes ago, klineka said:

Wouldnt that mean that how you are standing at address needs to be changed? Sounds like maybe your eyes are too far inside of the ball instead of over top of the ball so then you didnt trust your initial lineup of the ball and subconsciously altered your stroke which ended up in the putts missing to the right? I would think it would be easier to change your eye/head position at setup than it would be to purposefully line the ball even further left than your intended target line. I could see that becoming really problematic, especially on right to left putts where you would actually be aiming the ball inside your intended target line.

Why i would change my eyed position if i hit the ball just along the line I see while im over the ball ? That´s ideal to me. What i needed to solve is how i aligned it behind the ball so when im over it the line aims at my target. 

Yes from behind some putt that break to the left i aim left of the center of the hole from behind, but it doesn´t mather, over the ball i see the line aiming rigth of the hole in my intended line and i putt along it. 

[klineka]

5 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

Why i would change my eyed position if i hit the ball just along the line I see while im over the ball ? That´s ideal to me. What i needed to solve is how i aligned it behind the ball so when im over it the line aims at my target. 

 

In my opinion, it makes more sense to adjust your eyes at address to match the line that you see when you are reading the putt, which is from behind the ball. That way the line you see behind the ball is the same line you see standing over top the ball, which is the same line the ball will start on, without having to overcompensate for the mismatch between behind the ball aim and standing over the ball aim.

Im a fan of keeping things simple. By aiming further left to compensate for the mismatch, that is only adding another variable and a chance for your aim to be off. Im not saying your method doesnt work for you, I am just questioning it.

Why not make it as simple as possible so the intended target line is the same no matter which angle you look at the ball?

[p1n9183]

5 minutes ago, klineka said:

In my opinion, it makes more sense to adjust your eyes at address to match the line that you see when you are reading the putt, which is from behind the ball. That way the line you see behind the ball is the same line you see standing over top the ball, which is the same line the ball will start on, without having to overcompensate for the mismatch between behind the ball aim and standing over the ball aim.

Im a fan of keeping things simple. By aiming further left to compensate for the mismatch, that is only adding another variable and a chance for your aim to be off. Im not saying your method doesnt work for you, I am just questioning it.

Why not make it as simple as possible so the intended target line is the same no matter which angle you look at the ball?

I think aiming left back from the ball it´s easier than changing my hole putting stance to change my perception of the line over the ball. It´s no easy to have a set up that makes match both lines. Even you said above:

 

2 hours ago, TN94z said:

It does sometimes look wrong when I'm standing over it

I don´t want this, looking wrong is bad for confidence, and confidence it´s the world for putting. I want to trust what my eyes see over the ball, and i found it with it. 

Yes this fix worked for me, if someone have the same problem as me he could try with this. If your way it´s working then im glad for you you don´t need to change! 

[TN94z]

1 hour ago, p1n9183 said:

In your case, you aim from behind at your target, over the ball the line you see don´t aim at the hole. Your ball rolls along the line from behind the ball, it´s a different escenario. I think your stroke push or hook the ball from the line you see but it matches the lines you saw from behind, so it goes towards your target.

As i said, it would help the people with my same problem, that see the line wrong at address and roll the ball thru it left ot rigth to the target. 

So, for a straight putt, I aim the ball straight at the hole (which would be the target in that situation) and hit it on that line. My stroke isn't a push or pull. It's hitting the ball straight on the target line that will "ideally" have the putt go in the hole, whether that's straight, right to left, or left to right.

Most of the time, even when I stand over the ball, it still looks to be aimed at the target. But sometimes, it will make me feel like it is not going to have enough break. I don't trust that, which is why I use the line on the ball from behind and start my reading process over. Before I putt, the address looks the same as it did from behind for me. It seems you are bringing in too many variables and making it much more difficult.

10 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

I don´t want this, looking wrong is bad for confidence, and confidence it´s the world for putting. I want to trust what my eyes see over the ball, and i found it with it. 

Yes this fix worked for me, if someone have the same problem as me he could try with this. If your way it´s working then im glad for you you don´t need to change! 

The way I worded that is very misleading. For that I apologize. When I say it looks wrong, it is still aimed toward my target and will have a good chance of going in regardless.  I'm talking wrong by a feeling. 9 times out of 10 it's because i feel the break differently in my feet when I address the ball.  When this happens, I will step back, read the green again, make my adjustments, and then it looks good at address. You are referring to compensating for a mismatch which would be wrong, in my opinion. I am extremely confident in my putting. It's the best part of my game.

I'm not disagreeing that it works for you. That's great that you figured it out. I'm just saying that it seems it would be more difficult to have that compensation

Edited August 7, 2017 by TN94z

[saevel25]

7 minutes ago, TN94z said:

I'm talking wrong by a feeling. 9 times out of 10 it's because i feel the break differently in my feet when I address the ball. 

Well, the slope at the ball may or may not be the slope you need to read. What if you feet are on a 4% slope, but it changes a good amount down to 1% near the hole? The slope near the ball could throw off your aim entirely if you believe it to influence the putt. The slope is gradually changing as you get closer to the hole. So the slope at the ball has little to no influence at all.

 

[p1n9183]

10 minutes ago, TN94z said:

So, for a straight putt, I aim the ball straight at the hole (which would be the target in that situation) and hit it on that line. My stroke isn't a push or pull. It's hitting the ball straight on the target line that will "ideally" have the putt go in the hole, whether that's straight, right to left, or left to right.

Most of the time, even when I stand over the ball, it still looks to be aimed at the target. But sometimes, it will make me feel like it is not going to have enough break. I don't trust that, which is why I use the line on the ball from behind and never introduce a 2nd aiming tool for the putt. It seems you are bringing in too many variables and making it much more difficult.

The way I worded that is very misleading. For that I apologize. When I say it looks wrong, it is still aimed toward my target and will have a good chance of going in regardless.  I'm talking wrong by a feeling. 9 times out of 10 it's because i feel the break differently in my feet when I address the ball.  When this happens, I will step back, read the green again, make my adjustments, and then it looks good at address. You are referring to compensating for a mismatch which would wrong. I am extremely confident in my putting. It's the best part of my game.

I'm not disagreeing that it works for you. That's great that you figured it out. I'm just saying

Now i undestand you, your case it´s the ideal. In my case i have that visual difference an that´s why i have to came up with this fix. I wish i could see what you see but i can not :(

[TN94z]

5 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Well, the slope at the ball may or may not be the slope you need to read. What if you feet are on a 4% slope, but it changes a good amount down to 1% near the hole? The slope near the ball could throw off your aim entirely if you believe it to influence the putt. The slope is gradually changing as you get closer to the hole. So the slope at the ball has little to no influence at all.

 

I agree. That was just the easiest way to explain to the OP what I meant by the address feeling different.   That's why I didn't necessarily specify the length of the putt.

3 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

Now i undestand you, your case it´s the ideal. In my case i have that visual difference an that´s why i have to came up with this fix. I wish i could see what you see but i can not :(

I understand. Every golfer is different. It's good that you figured out a system for you to be more consistent

Edited August 7, 2017 by TN94z

[iacas]

I think it's odd to have to aim to miss the putt just so that it looks correct when you're over the putt.

What I said about where you place the ball down is this… Let's say you normally place the ball beneath your nose. If you put it down two inches to the right, you'd likely line it up to the right a bit. If you lined it up underneath your left eye, to the left, you'd likely line it up a little to the left.

Where you place the ball determines in most people where you see as "straight" (at your intended target).

Most people can't actually aim the line very well, so I tell most of my students to just put the white part of the ball up and to aim their putter, rather than trying to aim a line and then aiming their putter to that line.

[Buckeyebowman]

All putts are straight! Pick a spot an go!